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JOURNALING FOR WELLNESS
Keeping a journal can provide a way to make sense of what often feels like the incomprehensible. A journal can create a mental and emotional record of valuable information that may have gone unnoticed without the distance that reflexive writing affords. As a written response to daily life, a journal can identify changes or patterns in your moods and emotions, stress levels, energy levels, and work productivity. This insight can be psychologically, as well as physically beneficial.
If you are a beginner, start with what you know. Record the last-minute thought that rattles in your head when trying to fall asleep at night, or the daydream that consumes the downtime of your evening commute. Record things people say to you, or at least the parts that you remember. Or describe exactly how you feel the minute you open your eyes in the morning--and why. Always begin with a fresh page when you write a journal entry so that you have a clear beginning and ending point. Don't worry about repetition. In time, you will be able to look back with a fresh eye. What may seem like the commonplace often takes on new meaning and significance in a week, month, or year.
Think you don't have the time? It shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to record an entry unless you are feeling particularly inspired. However, remember to be selfish with your time and focus--think of those 15 minutes as an investment in your health and creativity, so put your energy, honesty, and wisdom onto the page.
You do not have to write everyday. There will be times when you simply don't want to write. If so, skip it--we all have enough "homework" to do for our jobs, families, and friends. Journaling is not a task; as soon as it feels like one, take a time out. If you seem to be out of synch with your journal for a long period of time, take a break from writing and dedicate a page to a quick sketch, a meaningful quote, or a photograph. Feel free to customize your journal with the things that best tell your story.
Maintaining multiple journals can also be an option. Some people may keep both a personal journal and a work journal in order to concentrate on specific interests and issues. Whether you choose to keep separate meditation journals, exercise journals, and health journals, or simply to have one journal where "literally and symbolically all of the pieces of (your) life...come together,"1 journal writing promotes observation, discovery, and change.
Writing promotes healing. In addition to improving one's mental and emotional well-being, recent studies suggest that there are physical benefits to journaling as well. Research conducted by Dr. Joshua M. Smyth at the State University of New York at Stonybrook concluded that "patients who wrote about stressful life experiences had clinically relevant changes in health status compared with those in the control group."2
Catherine Franz, a cancer survivor and personal coach at the Abundance Center in Arlington, Virginia (www.abundancecenter.com) gives us 10 more important benefits to journaling:
1. Faster self-discovery
2. Improved focus and clarity
3. New solutions to solve problems
4. Creativity is enhanced
5. Sanctuary and escape
6. Emotional empowerment
7. Shows you how to enjoy life more
8. Timelines
9. Improves communication skills
10. Valuable record
Here are a few quick journal writing tips to help you get started:
1. Write when you feel like writing. You are your own audience. Do away with any expectations you may have of how long or how often you should write.
2. Find a comfortable place that is free from interruptions. Writing a journal entry does not have to take a lot of time, but it should take your full attention.
3. Do not worry about editing your work. Wordsmithing often limits the open flow of ideas.
4. Give yourself some time before you review your entries. Allow yourself the introspection and healing that distance affords.
Related Books and Resources:
Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Gabriele Rico, PhD, Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers
Beverly Kirkhart, My Healing Companion
1 Marlene A. Schiwy, A Voice of Her Own (Simon and Schuster: New York, 1986.)
2 Joshua M. Smyth, PhD, Arthur A. Stone, PhD, Adam Hurewitz, MD, Alan Kaell, MD, "Effects of Writing About Stressful Experiences on Symptom Reduction in Patients with Asthma or Rheumatoid Arthritis; A Randomized Trial", JAMA, April 14, 1999--Vol. 281, No. 14, p.1304.
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